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Overview

Details

Property

house

Sleeps

8

Bedrooms

4

Bathrooms

2

Minimum Stay

nights

Description

Brooksville House Rental Photos and Description

House, 4 Bedrooms + Convertible bed(s), 2.25 Baths, (Sleeps 6-8)

Come to relax and unwind at our peaceful escape on the coast of Maine! We are located on 5 private acres of land in the rural town of Brooksville close to some of the best areas to explore on the mid-coast East Penobscot Bay. Just a short drive away, Blue Hill, Stonington and Castine, all have great restaurants, shopping, and local pottery and antique shops. Blue Hill has a library for books, DVDs and high-speed Internet connection. Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are about one hour’s drive. Nearby Holbrook Island Sanctuary is great for local hiking right near the ocean. The Isle au Haut ferry leaves from the working fishing town of Stonington daily during the summer months. Fresh locally caught lobster can be easily purchased from the docks at the Stonington Co-op. We are an easy drive from The Haystack School of Crafts and the Wooden Boat School. The public ocean beach, at the causeway between Little Deer Isle and Big Deer Isle, is just three miles away.

We completed our house in the spring of 2008. Originally designed by us for our own year round private use Orchard House has a bright airy feeling with lots of natural light so desired during summer months and yet with radiant heat throughout and almost airtight insulation it maintains a comfortable coziness for fall and winter.

The ground floor has natural slate and tile flooring, with a large entryway, two bedrooms (one a king with pullout futon and another with a queen), a full bath with tub and shower and a laundry room. The 2nd floor has bamboo flooring throughout and cathedral ceilings with huge south facing windows allowing for incredible light both in the bedroom (king) and the great room, which houses a full kitchen and living room. There’s also a smaller bedroom (twin) and full bath with an incredible walk-in natural slate shower with waterfall shower head. The eat-in kitchen is a cooks dream, ample counter space with butcher block island, complete with Bosch gas stove and convection oven (Cooking magazines provided!) With a local farmers market in Blue Hill fresh ingredients are close at hand.

The 12’x34’ deck off the great room almost doubles the summer living space and is a great place to enjoy meals outside. It overlooks a primarily pine and oak wooded area and boasts a private outside cedar walled shower. It’s just a short 900 foot walk down through the woods to the waters edge of Walkers Pond. A great place for that morning cup of coffee, where it’s possible to launch your kayak over the rocky edge.

About Sally McGuigan

We built Orchard House with plans to live there full time year round. Our plans changed along the way and we moved out of Maine but love returning to the area to visit family and friends and just enjoy the peace and quiet of this small Maine coastal town where Sally grew up!

Exceptional!5/5 -

(27 traveler reviews)

Relaxing

This house is just close enough to the crazy touristy areas of downeast to make it possible to visit them, but far enough way to be quiet, relaxing, and make you feel like you're really experiencing Maine. When you're tired of the shoulder to shoulder press of people (even at Acadia, that was nuts - I've never seen it so busy) you can head back, take a swim in the "pond" (aka lake), have food at some awesome spots, and we even had our first ever home lobster boil - had everything we needed to do it. Must recommend The Fish Net, Bagaduce, Stonington CoOp, Harbor House and Harbor Cafe for meals. The Tradewinds grocery was big enough to have what we needed. We loved The Meadow in Blue Hill for shopping. The outdoor shower was a multi-generational hit that was used multiple times a day.

Peacefulness abounds in this beautiful home!

My three children and I stayed at this property for a week in August. We had such a wonderful time. The house is beautiful and so well equipped. Everything you could possibly need is there. The kitchen is fitted for actual cooking, linens and towels are provided. The house is also spotlessly clean which I appreciate above everything else. My two boys are teenagers and used the downstairs bedrooms with the bathroom down there. My daughter and I used the upstairs rooms. Everyone loved having their own space while still being together. The house is well stocked with DVD's, games, and books. Two of my kids spent hours in the evenings playing chess and I loved seeing them so focused on something non electronic.

The outside shower is an absolute dream, there is nothing like showering outside on a beautiful summer morning. The house location is very private and incredibly quiet and peaceful.

We found the location of the property to be excellent for exploring many areas of Maine. We went all over the Blue Hill Peninsula and we drove up to Mount Desert Island quite a few times. It is an easy drive away of just about one hour. Acadia National Park is absolutely breathtaking.

The owners clearly take a great deal of pride in their property. Sally is extremely pleasant and helpful. She is very responsive and sent us a detailed email with ideas of places to go and restaurants to eat at. I have rented many places and she was by far the most friendly and helpful owner I have ever dealt with.

I would not hesitate to return here and often think longingly of our peaceful week in Maine!

Orchard House is "all good"...

Thank you, Sally, for your the kind words in your e-mail about Jeanie and me as guests in your wonderful Orchard House. We return them to you and Sean manyfold. We totally agree with you that trust and open communication between owners and renters are essential to arrangements such as the ones that VRBO facilitates. And having lived in Orchard House for a whole month, we feel “well met” by you and Sean, even though we haven’t actually met you.

I don’t know that Jeanie and I have anything to add to the reviews of Orchard House on the VRBO website, which are all strongly positive, or to the House Book that you have put together, which is a great resource for your guests. Like your other guests we found our own favorite places on the Blue Hill peninsula, as did all of our own family visitors.

For Jeanie and me, the Good Life Center, a/k/a Forest Farm, was of special interest. I’m old enough to have known the Scott and Helen Nearing story from the 1960s on. We got to meet and have conversation with the interns in residence there and even a couple of members of the board that oversees the Forest Farm operation. The Wooden Boat and Haystack Schools were of special interest too, and we made more than one visit to both of them.

As for restaurants, we liked your favorites, the Bagduce Cafe for lunch and the Whale’s Rib for dinner, but the Cockatoo Portuguese Restaurant at Goose Cove turned out to be a favorite too, with the walk through the woods and across the sandbar to Barred Island as a kind of bonus to our meal.

Everywhere we travel Jeanie has an unerring instinct for finding the most amazing hiking trails, and the Blue Hill peninsula, as you know, because of the Island Trust, proved to have a seemingly endless supply of such trails, a new discovery every day we went out.

You may recall my having told you that Jeanie paid her way through college, back in the 1970s, by working six summers at a restaurant in Bar Harbor. So nostalgia called us to Mount Desert Island while we were staying in Orchard House. We took all of our family visitors to Mount Desert too… for hikes and climbs in Acadia and, of course, tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House.

Our month in Orchard House, escaping at least some of the (almost) unbearable heat of the Florida summer, was, in a favorite phrase of Jeanie’s and mine, “all good.” Here’s wishing you and Sean and your children the same, only and “all good” things.

Magical place!

This was our third stay at Orchard House, but we've been coming to the neighborhood for 15 years. My kids are college students now, and they still dream about coming to Brooksville each summer. This is a gloriously beautiful region, with plenty of low-key activities, including hiking, kayaking, blueberry picking, swimming, beachcombing, bird watching and just taking in a spectacular view around each corner. There are also hundreds of artists and writers who live and work here, wonderful restaurants and small food businesses, and abundant peace and quiet.

Orchard House is comfortable sunny and spacious, with a beautifully equipped kitchen. Sally and Sean are wonderful hosts. We love it here and we will certainly be back!

The scene of many happy vacations

Orchard House is a wonderful place that will draw you back year after year. I know it firsthand because for much of a decade it was my home away from home for an annual fall getaway to Maine. And I was ever so grateful for the warmth and friendship that Sally and Sean offered over time. They are first-rate hosts.

I'll always think of their house as a place that held so many good stories for me. At moments, it was a den of solitude. I'd pack a pile of books and old New Yorkers to read (or maybe drop into the Blue Hill Library). And I'd walk many miles in the woods and happen upon a gaggle of wild turkeys or a porcupine on his way. Or sit on the shore of the lake with a cup of coffee and have a good think. It would be a fine place to write.

Other times, the house was full of joyful conviviality. I invited friends who'd stop in for a few days and we'd explore the peninsula (guided by the house binder full of good suggestions for adventures) and then come home (often with lobsters fresh off the dock in Stonington) and cook and feast and drink good wine (see Max at the Blue Hill wine shop) and tell tall tales late into the night. It was such fun.

And always, at the end of the day, no matter how brisk the late October air, there was a hot shower under a bazillion stars. Pure magic.

I'm in a new phase of life now with a sweet pup and a partner who desires to explore more pockets of Maine and beyond. One day we hope to have our own place up north -- and I'll always be grateful to Orchard House and Sally and Sean for making my annual treks to Maine a much-loved respite and ritual -- the very best weeks of the year.

Beautiful Blue Hill

Wonderful time in Blue Hill area. Orchard House was a perfect home base especially if you like to take advantage of all the area farmer's markets and off the boat seafood...come back to a wonderful gourmet kitchen to prepare your finds. Tons of room, nice layout, very helpful owners. I would definitely recommend.

Photos

Rates & Availability

Brooksville House Rental Rates

Additional information about rental rates

Maximum 8 people
Weeks are Saturday 4pm - Saturday 10am
Contact owners for questions about exceptions to the weekly stay, will consider partial weeks/nightly stays.
Absolutely Please NO Pets and NO Smoking.

An advance payment of 50% of the total bill is required sixty (60) days before the arrival date. The balance of payment of total bill is due twenty eight (28) days before the arrival date.
We charge a $200 reservation deposit that becomes a refundable security deposit upon receipt of the total payment.
There is a $125 fee for housekeeping and 8% Maine State Lodging Tax.

Owner's Cancellation Policy

50% refund if canceled at least 7 days before arrival date.

100% refund if canceled at least 14 days before arrival date.

Available arrival

Available stay (no arrival)

Unavailable

Updated:

Sep 29, 2016

Calendar not updated in over 2 months and may not be available. Look for rentals with Request to Book or updated calendars.

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